Influences: “Loaded” 1929 Roadster Pickup by Pinkees

1929 Ford Roadster Pickup – “Loaded” by Pinkees

To me, this car epitomizes the look and feel of how a modern “Hot Rod” Should be, built in the modern times with modern tools and materials just like a shiny street rod.
In many ways there is too much detail to even appreciate all of the work and craftsmanship, especially in such a small and compact package. Many cars of the built post 2000 have gone the “rat rod” route, which many use as license to do a “quick and dirty” hot rod. Many times these rat-rods are unsafe and poorly made vehicles but usually have very cool stances and lines – because these builders are usually willing to think outside of the box and try something new.
This is why “loaded” is so cool – it’s packed full of the innovations and the details that make the shiny new $1,000,000 street rods cool but they we’re willing to take a little something from the creative rat-rodders to create something very well balanced and cool. The sheet metal fabrication on this car is top-notch, not unlike some of the work we do here at Beck Speed & Design.

Some details in the sheet metal work:

Channeled Body:
The Frame was built specially for this car to get the super low stance, but to get it even lower the stock model-A body had to be channeled to fit over the frame, instead of sitting on top. Notice in the photo; the frame would normally be visible for the entire length of the body. Much care has to be taken when creating the channel and the frame. It’s a close balance between too much channel and not enough.

Stretched Roadster Pickup Body:
There isn’t an off-the-shelf part of this car and the body is no exception. A standard roadster pickup is fine if you’re about 4’11” tall and are sitting in the original position (which is nearly vertical). Once you reconfigure the stance of the vehicle to this low-slung design; there just isn’t room enough to stretch your legs length-wise. This called for an 8” stretch in the doors. To add to the difficulty the cowl was sectioned several inches shorter which creates the wedge shape of the body, all of the new parts and modifications had to carry through this design.
(I love this car so I may revisit this to talk about other details that I like)

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